Protest against undocumented student ban heats up at UGA

Police Chief Jimmy Williamson asks Alejandro Galeana Salinas and other protestors to clear the steps to the Administration Building on the UGA campus as a group protests a State Board of Regents policy that keeps undocumented immigrants out of several Georgia colleges on Monday, April 28, 2014, in Athens, Ga. (AJ Reynolds/Athens Banner-Herald)

A group protest a 2010 State Board of Regents policy that keeps undocumented immigrants out of several Georgia colleges in front of the Administration Building on the UGA campus on Monday, April 28, 2014, in Athens, Ga. (AJ Reynolds/Athens Banner-Herald)

A group protest a 2010 State Board of Regents policy that keeps undocumented immigrants out of several Georgia colleges in front of the Administration Building on the UGA campus on Monday, April 28, 2014, in Athens, Ga. (AJ Reynolds/Athens Banner-Herald)

Protestors didn’t burn their high school diplomas as planned, but things still got heated at a Monday demonstration against a ban on undocumented students from Georgia’s top schools.

Following speeches at the Arch, roughly 100 protestors — UGA students, faculty and staff and undocumented immigrants — arrived at the University of Georgia administration building steps and attempted to enter. Protestors wanted UGA President Jere Morehead to publicly denounce the ban, voted into place by the state Board of Regents in 2010, from a moral standpoint. He would neither condemn the ban nor publicly meet the protestors.

UGA Police Chief Jimmy Williamson barred the demonstrators from the building until Morehead’s assistant, Matthew Winston, called for Anise Crane and Yami Rodriguez, two UGA students, and JoBeth Allen, an education professor, to speak with the president in his office.

Two students who helped organize the protest were soon invited to join a conversation in Morehead’s office, a talk that demonstrators characterized as fruitless.

“Conversations happen everyday, some with great results,” Samaniego said through a megaphone. “This was not one of them.”

The crowed yelled, calling Morehead spineless and a coward.

Morehead’s office released a statement saying, “We follow Regents policies. As president, I listened to the concerns expressed today and will convey those concerns to the Regents.”

The Regents’ policy effectively bars undocumented students from attending Georgia’s top universities. Undocumented students can still attend smaller schools or technical colleges, but must pay out-of-state tuition and aren’t eligible for federal or state financial aid. Opponents say the policy is causing a brain drain of highly-qualified students educated in Georgia’s public schools as undocumented students brought to the U.S. as children. Students involved in Freedom University, a school for undocumented students started by UGA professors, have gone on to study at private colleges in other states. Many undocumented students said during the protest that the Regents ban dashed their lifelong dreams of attending UGA.

Monday’s protest marked the third time Freedom University and its supporters demonstrated against the ban at the Arch.

Even after their goal of gaining Morehead’s public support failed, the undocumented students didn’t feel deterred.

“We’ve been at this for so long, but every time we get together, we get stronger. We’re making progress,” said Freedom University student Mitzy Calderon.

People are becoming more and more aware of the undocumented student story, said Erik Morin-Velazquez, a 19-year-old Winder resident.

“Maybe this is our year, but if not, we’ll come back next year,” the undocumented graduate of Barrow County’s Apalachee High School said.

At times, tensions between protestors and police escalated. A legal observer from the National Lawyer’s Guild was removed with force after attempting to enter the building. After the meeting with Morehead ended, students swelled against the building’s glass doors, covering it with signs and banners, pounding on the frame and chanting through megaphones.

Eight police officers eventually opened the doors and pressed through the crowd, clearing the steps into the building with force and threats of arrest. The crowd settled, opting to sit-in at the base of the steps until they marched back to the Arch at 4 p.m., where soon-to-graduate students posed in cap and gown for graduation photos.

JoBeth Allen, a professor of 28 years, said Morehead told her and the students that their meeting was not in vain. Allen said she was “disappointed” that the president did not address the crowd.

Allen offered her opinion on Morehead’s actions: “I believe that President Morehead opposes the ban. I believe he can’t say that publicly because there is concern there would be retaliation from the Board of Regents (in terms of funding for UGA).”

Allen said it’s impossible not to link the undocumented students’ movement to Civil Rights movements of the past. Given UGA’s history with segregation, “you’d think that we’d be smarter. (These students are) the future.”

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If they are illegal and protesting lock them up. This would stop those protesting. What right do they have to protest in a Country that they entered into Illegally? The legal people are struggling to keep their children in college and the illegal want all the benefits. Send everyone of them back to their native County.

They are ILLEGAL ALIENS! Sorry if that hurts their law-breaking hearts and crushes their life-long dreams of theft by deception of a limited spot on the campus of UGA....no...not really sorry at all!! How's this for a solution to their dilemma? Return to their country of origin, file for a student visa and PAY as a foreign national attending the universities set up and funded with our tax dollars and our tuition/fee payments!!